This invention relates to building systems used in building construction and, more particularly, to premanufactured, composite building panels or other composite building components that combine to form structured panel sections usable for rapid construction of frameless buildings, which exhibit improved strength, weight, insulation and other efficiency characteristics.
Recent changes in today""s housing industry have led to increased use by builders of premanufactured or modular construction components. Premanufactured building components, such as panels, are used for walls, roofs, floors, doors, and other components of a building. Premanufactured building components are desirable because they decrease greatly the time and expense involved in constructing new building structures as compared to traditional component construction which utilizes large quantities of masonry, wood, metal, or concrete components that are assembled by laborers at the job sites in time consuming, complicated and expensive processes.
The premanufactured building components for structural-load-bearing panels must, however, comply with a number of required specifications based on structural criteria, such as axial load-bearing, shear and racking strengths, and total weight of the components. Additional criteria that may affect the specifications of the components include fire resistance, thermal insulation efficiency, sound abating properties, rot and insect resistance, and water resistance. The types of premanufactured building components that can be designed, assembled and shipped to meet all of these specifications are narrowly defined and highly specific and toleranced compared to traditional component construction. Further, premanufactured building components require specialized in-plant workforces to manufacture. The resultant high quality, preferred premanufactured building component is readily transportable, efficiently packaged, and easily handled for the job site.
Premanufactured components for building construction have in the past had a variety of constructions. A common component is a laminated or composite panel. One such composite panel includes a core material of foam or other insulating material positioned between wood members, and the combination is fixed together by nails, screws, or adhesives. These wood composite panels suffer from the disadvantage of being combustible and not mechanically stable enough for many construction applications. These wood composite panels are subject to rot, decay, and insect attack. Accordingly, wood composite panels are not deemed satisfactory for a large cross-section of modern building applications. In one variation of the wood-composite building panel, a laminated skin is fixed to the outside wood members. These panels with the laminated skin are more expensive to manufacture while suffering from the same inadequacies as the panels without the laminated skins.
A significant improvement to the building component technology was developed and set forth in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,846, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The improved technology provides a structural building component, having front and back side panels positioned opposite each other, and a plurality of joining sides positioned intermediate the front and back side panels so as to substantially define a six-sided structure having an interior area therein. An insulating core positioned in the interior area has a plurality of throughholes extending between the front and back side panels. A plurality of individual shear resistance connectors are positioned in the throughholes and adhered to the front and back side panels.
Constructing the building component using the shear resistance connectors substantially increases the shear strength of the component. As a result, improved building components can be constructed to vary the load-bearing strength vs. weight characteristics of the building components by varying the thicknesses, densities and configurations of the side panels and the joining sides, and by varying the number, configuration and positioning of the shear resistance connectors. Accordingly, a person can design a building structure, determine the structural requirements for the building components, and then select a desired load-bearing strength, shear strength, and weight of the building panels to meet the structural requirements, and then construct the appropriate specified panel required for the defined application.
The improved building components with shear resistance connectors can be very strong, lightweight, and versatile building components, compared to similar panels without the shear resistance connectors. However, the manufacturing of such building components can be a relatively time-consuming and labor-intensive process, which can increase cost and lower the availability of the components.
A further significant improvement to the building component technology was developed and set forth in my pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/304,221, filed May 3, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The improved technology provides a directional, structural building component that is asymmetrical about the X-axis. The building component has an insulative core contained within an outer skin, an integral channel-shaped shear resistance connector, and integral symmetrical joinery portions with a thermal break. A face sheet may be adhered to one or both sides of the building component.
The present invention is directed toward a structural building system that overcomes drawbacks experienced by other building systems, that exhibits greater structural capacity, is easier and less expensive to manufacture and provides additional benefits over the prior art building systems. In one embodiment of the present invention, the building system is a frameless building system. The building system is used for constructing a building with a wall, a floor, and a ceiling. The system includes a plurality of composite first panels interconnected to form the walls of the building. Each of the first panels include front and back side portions positioned opposite each other, and joinery portions integral to the front and back side portions forming symmetrical joinery members. The front and back sections and the integral joinery portions define an interior area. An insulating core is in the interior area. A shear resistance connector projects from one side of the side portions into the insulating core. The adjacent first panels are joined together at the integral joinery to form a load-bearing integral post structure in the wall. A plurality of composite second panels are interconnected to form the floor or ceiling of the building. The second panels have substantially the same construction as the first panels. The adjacent second panels are joined together at the integral joinery to form an integral beam structure in the floor or ceiling. The plurality of second panels forming the floor or ceiling are connected to the first panels forming the wall so as to connect the wall to the floor or ceiling.
In another embodiment, the building system uses a plurality of asymmetrical, directional, force resisting building components interconnected to form a frameless structural panel section. In one embodiment, the building component is a panel that includes spaced apart front and back sections, an insulating core between the front and back sections, joinery members connected to the front and back sections, and at least one shear resistance connector between the front and back sections and connected to the insulating core. The front and back sections are constructed of a first material and positioned opposite each other. The front and back sections of the building component define an interior area. The insulating core is constructed of a second material different from the first material and is within the interior area for improving the panel""s insulating properties without significantly adding to the panel""s weight.
In one embodiment, the joinery members are symmetrical and are integrally connected to the front and back sections. The integral joinery members allows two or more building components to be bonded together to form an integral section of structural panel components, while a gap or break integral to the joinery member provides a thermal break, which substantially blocks thermal energy from passing between the inside and outside of a building structure. The structural sections resist all three primary directions of force, i.e. compressive, in-plane, and out-of-plane forces.
The building component""s shear resistance connection in one embodiment is an elongated channel-shaped shear resistance connector formed as part of either the front or back section. The building component is directionally oriented such that the maximum shear force can be applied to a side of the panel opposite the shear resistance connector. The front and back sections may be further adapted to receive a face sheet cladding. The face sheet may span one or several building components, such as panels, and provides additional synergistic structural strength advantages. A single unclad panel unit provides a first level of structural strength that exhibits advantages over the prior art such as greater structural capacities at correspondingly lower weights and smaller physical sizes, all providing greater cost effectiveness than traditional building construction materials. Two or more connected panels combine to provide a second level of structural strength that has a sum strength greater than the sum of the individual panels"" strengths. The addition of a face sheet spanning more than one panel and across interconnected joinery members provides a third level of structural strength that has even greater synergistic structural strength advantages as compared to the individual panels, or the unclad connected panels.
A plurality of building components are bonded together to form a freestanding frameless building. The bonded building components can be used to form the entire building system, namely, the floor, walls, ceiling and roof. In another embodiment, the bonded building components may be combined with conventional building systems, such as a conventional roof that connects to a plurality of bonded building components that form the walls, floors, and ceilings, thereby providing a freestanding, frameless building structure set on a selected foundation. In yet another embodiment, the bonded building components and conventional building components may be intermixed throughout the building system.